AI is dominating the conversation at Climate Week

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AI is dominating the conversation at Climate Week

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This week, world leaders descended on Manhattan for the UN General Assembly. It’s also New York Climate Week—investors, policymakers, advocates, and journalists are colliding at panels, talks, and fancy dinners. With so many climate voices in one place, the discourse can feel a little louder than usual. This year, the unavoidable topic is artificial intelligence. There’s been a growing tension bubbling up about AI’s impacts on climate and climate tech. Depending on where you stand, you might point to AI’s potential for advancing research, or to the way funding and attention from Big Tech is trickling into energy startups. Or you might focus on the emissions-heavy natural-gas buildout that’s unfolding to meet the sector’s electricity demand. Everyone seems to agree that AI is important. The big question for those in the climate world, and the conversation I’m constantly having and hearing this week, involves how you see its influence unfolding. UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the AI and climate crossover in a speech on the first day of the assembly. “The climate crisis fuels instability and displacement,” Guterres said. “Artificial intelligence could help solve all these challenges, or it could make them worse.” It feels relevant that this year is the first that the world has really had to grapple with the fact that climate goals are slipping out of reach. A recent report from the UN Environment Program said that the world has nearly passed the point where we could possibly keep warming to less than 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. Since we’ve essentially missed this target, the report lays out the need not only to quickly and drastically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but also to employ carbon removal to help suck up emissions that have already been released into the atmosphere. The billion-dollar question is whether AI could help with any of this. The energy-intensive technology is certainly shining a spotlight on the need to build out electricity supplies and shore up grid reliability. The result is more attention and money for energy technologies, some of which happen to be low- or zero-emissions. As I’ve covered before, startups across the energy and climate sectors are benefiting. Firms in nuclear, geothermal, wind, and solar power have signed deals with the likes of Google, Meta, and others looking to power their new or growing data centers. Global climate-tech investment from venture capital hit $26 billion in the first half of 2026, according to data from Currence, a finance tracker for the industry. That’s 55% higher than last year, and products and services for data centers are getting a massive slice of that pie. But as a Semafor piece about the report points out, some sectors are slipping through the cracks: Carbon management and low-carbon fuels saw VC investment plummet this year. These are important solutions for addressing climate change but may not be able to sell themselves to a data center. So far, the data center buildout has come with a hefty emissions toll. A few years ago, Microsoft, Google, and Meta all had ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Now they’ve all seen emissions rise, largely because of data centers that are needed to power AI. Some people are optimistic. AI could help speed up progress in areas like the search for new catalysts, as Evelyn Wang, MIT’s VP of energy and climate, pointed out during a panel. And data centers won’t add to climate and water problems forever, Wang told the Associated Press. (She puts the timeline at about a decade until data centers no longer add to planet-warming emissions.) But a whole lot of natural gas is coming online to meet the immediate demand created by new data centers. And once those power plants are built, they have a decades-long lifetime. That’s partly why public pushback to AI is growing—people are seeing more pollution and noise near these data centers and the power plants that provide them with electricity. Overall, what I’m hearing this week is that many in the climate sector are skeptical of AI, at best. “AI leaders are now on thin ice when it comes to license to operate and sinking deep underwater when it comes to public support,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell in a speech this week. “Tech titans need to start showing why the benefits of AI outweigh its skyrocketing costs—for the many, not just the tiny few.” This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

This week, world leaders descended on Manhattan for the UN General Assembly. It’s also New York Climate Week—investors, policymakers, advocates, and journalists are colliding at panels, talks, and fancy dinners.

With so many climate voices in one place, the discourse can feel a little louder than usual. This year, the unavoidable topic is artificial intelligence.

There’s been a growing tension bubbling up about AI’s impacts on climate and climate tech. Depending on where you stand, you might point to AI’s potential for advancing research, or to the way funding and attention from Big Tech is trickling into energy startups. Or you might focus on the emissions-heavy natural-gas buildout that’s unfolding to meet the sector’s electricity demand.

Everyone seems to agree that AI is important. The big question for those in the climate world, and the conversation I’m constantly having and hearing this week, involves how you see its influence unfolding.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the AI and climate crossover in a speech on the first day of the assembly. “The climate crisis fuels instability and displacement,” Guterres said. “Artificial intelligence could help solve all these challenges, or it could make them worse.”

It feels relevant that this year is the first that the world has really had to grapple with the fact that climate goals are slipping out of reach. A recent report from the UN Environment Program said that the world has nearly passed the point where we could possibly keep warming to less than 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels.

Since we’ve essentially missed this target, the report lays out the need not only to quickly and drastically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but also to employ carbon removal to help suck up emissions that have already been released into the atmosphere.

The billion-dollar question is whether AI could help with any of this.

The energy-intensive technology is certainly shining a spotlight on the need to build out electricity supplies and shore up grid reliability. The result is more attention and money for energy technologies, some of which happen to be low- or zero-emissions.

As I’ve covered before, startups across the energy and climate sectors are benefiting. Firms in nuclear, geothermal, wind, and solar power have signed deals with the likes of Google, Meta, and others looking to power their new or growing data centers.

Global climate-tech investment from venture capital hit $26 billion in the first half of 2026, according to data from Currence, a finance tracker for the industry. That’s 55% higher than last year, and products and services for data centers are getting a massive slice of that pie.

But as a Semafor piece about the report points out, some sectors are slipping through the cracks: Carbon management and low-carbon fuels saw VC investment plummet this year. These are important solutions for addressing climate change but may not be able to sell themselves to a data center.

So far, the data center buildout has come with a hefty emissions toll. A few years ago, Microsoft, Google, and Meta all had ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Now they’ve all seen emissions rise, largely because of data centers that are needed to power AI.

Some people are optimistic. AI could help speed up progress in areas like the search for new catalysts, as Evelyn Wang, MIT’s VP of energy and climate, pointed out duri n g a panel. And data centers won’t add to climate and water problems forever, Wang told the Associated Press. (She puts the timeline at about a decade until data centers no longer add to planet-warming emissions.)

But a whole lot of natural gas is coming online to meet the immediate demand created by new data centers. And once those power plants are built, they have a decades-long lifetime.

That’s partly why public pushback to AI is growing—people are seeing more pollution and noise near these data centers and the power plants that provide them with electricity. Overall, what I’m hearing this week is that many in the climate sector are skeptical of AI, at best.

“AI leaders are now on thin ice when it comes to license to operate and sinking deep underwater when it comes to public support,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell in a speech this week. “Tech titans need to start showing why the benefits of AI outweigh its skyrocketing costs—for the many, not just the tiny few.”

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

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Selector brings Git-based workflows and incident replay to network AI agents

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EOG appoints Hibbard to succeed Janssen as CFO

@import url(‘https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter:wght@100..900&display=swap’); .ebm-page__main h1, .ebm-page__main h2, .ebm-page__main h3, .ebm-page__main h4, .ebm-page__main h5, .ebm-page__main h6 { font-family: Inter; } body { line-height: 150%; letter-spacing: 0.025em; } button, .ebm-button-wrapper { font-family: Inter; } .label-style { text-transform: uppercase; color: var(–color-grey); font-weight: 600; font-size: 0.75rem; } .caption-style { font-size: 0.75rem; color: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 60%, transparent); } #onetrust-pc-sdk [id*=btn-handler], #onetrust-pc-sdk [class*=btn-handler] { background-color: #c19a06 !important; border-color: #c19a06 !important; } #onetrust-policy a, #onetrust-pc-sdk a, #ot-pc-content a { color: #c19a06 !important; } #onetrust-consent-sdk #onetrust-pc-sdk .ot-active-menu { border-color: #c19a06 !important; } #onetrust-consent-sdk #onetrust-accept-btn-handler, #onetrust-banner-sdk #onetrust-reject-all-handler, #onetrust-consent-sdk #onetrust-pc-btn-handler.cookie-setting-link { background-color: #c19a06 !important; border-color: #c19a06 !important; } #onetrust-consent-sdk .onetrust-pc-btn-handler { color: #c19a06 !important; border-color: #c19a06 !important; } <!–> EOG Resources Inc., Houston, has appointed Jeffrey W. Hibbard executive vice-president and chief financial officer, effective Jan. 1, 2027, succeeding Ann D. Janssen. Janssen, who elected to retire, will serve as an advisor during a transition period before her retirement in 2027. ]–> <!–> Jan. 7, 2026 ]–> <!–> Hibbard has served as EOG’s senior vice-president, finance, since joining the company in August 2025. Before joining EOG, he spent more than 20 years with Morgan Stanley, most recently as a managing director in the firm’s Global Energy Group. Janssen joined a predecessor company in 1995 and has worked at EOG and its predecessors for more than 30 years. She has served as executive vice-president and chief financial officer since January 2024. Previously, she held several finance and accounting leadership roles, including senior vice-president and chief accounting officer. ]–>

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Floating Data Centers Move Toward Infrastructure Scale

Rather than constructing the building sequentially on a conventional site, Samsung can fabricate the floating structure and integrate much of the electrical, mechanical and cooling infrastructure in a shipyard. Site work at the eventual mooring location can proceed simultaneously. This has the potential to compress one of the longest parts of the data center development schedule. Modern shipyards already operate as enormous industrialized manufacturing environments capable of constructing highly complex LNG carriers, offshore production platforms and other structures containing power generation, electrical distribution, piping, controls and mechanical systems. Adding a floating data center effectively applies those capabilities to digital infrastructure. Samsung and Mousterian describe the facility as being fabricated off-site to shipyard standards. Instead of pouring foundations and constructing a data center building around the infrastructure, the facility becomes a manufactured asset that can be transported to its operating location. Samsung has also been building a broader development ecosystem around floating data centers. In June, the shipbuilder signed agreements with Greece-based Capital and Lloyd’s Register covering project development, investment sourcing and regulatory requirements, while LR Advisory is working with Samsung on North American market analysis, infrastructure assessments and commercial feasibility. Samsung also entered a joint development project with Supermicro to validate AI server infrastructure for offshore conditions, where vibration, vessel inclination, salt-laden air and rapid humidity changes can affect equipment reliability and lifespan. Samsung says it will develop positioning-control and salt- and humidity-protection technologies while Supermicro conducts operational verification of AI server infrastructure in river and marine environments. Unlocking Power That Data Centers Can’t Reach Mousterian’s model also addresses perhaps the biggest constraint facing today’s data center industry: power. The facilities are intended to be positioned near existing generation and maritime infrastructure, allowing them to reach electrical capacity that may be difficult to serve through a conventional land-based development. The

Roundtable: Redefining Critical Infrastructure

Matt Vincent is Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier, where he leads editorial strategy and coverage focused on the infrastructure powering cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the digital economy. A veteran B2B technology journalist with more than two decades of experience, Vincent specializes in the intersection of data centers, power, cooling, and emerging AI-era infrastructure. Since assuming the EIC role in 2023, he has helped guide Data Center Frontier’s coverage of the industry’s transition into the gigawatt-scale AI era, with a focus on hyperscale development, behind-the-meter power strategies, liquid cooling architectures, and the evolving energy demands of high-density compute, while working closely with the Digital Infrastructure Group at Endeavor Business Media to expand the brand’s analytical and multimedia footprint. Vincent also hosts The Data Center Frontier Show podcast, where he interviews industry leaders across hyperscale, colocation, utilities, and the data center supply chain to examine the technologies and business models reshaping digital infrastructure. Since its inception he serves as Head of Content for the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit. Before becoming Editor in Chief, he served in multiple senior editorial roles across Endeavor Business Media’s digital infrastructure portfolio, with coverage spanning data centers and hyperscale infrastructure, structured cabling and networking, telecom and datacom, IP physical security, and wireless and Pro AV markets. He began his career in 2005 within PennWell’s Advanced Technology Division and later held senior editorial positions supporting brands such as Cabling Installation & Maintenance, Lightwave Online, Broadband Technology Report, and Smart Buildings Technology. Vincent is a frequent moderator, interviewer, and keynote speaker at industry events including the HPC Forum, where he delivers forward-looking analysis on how AI and high-performance computing are reshaping digital infrastructure. He graduated with honors from Indiana University Bloomington with a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing and lives in southern New Hampshire with

How Communities Can Plan for AI Data Centers Before the Projects Arrive

The collision between AI infrastructure development and community opposition has become one of the defining data center stories of 2026. Developers are pursuing larger campuses, more power and compressed delivery schedules as AI accelerates demand for computing capacity. Meanwhile, local planning boards, elected officials and residents are increasingly being asked to make decisions about facilities whose scale, energy requirements and technological purpose may be unlike anything previously contemplated in their comprehensive plans. That gap is where Ilissa Miller believes much of the conflict begins. Miller, founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations and a board member of the Open Infrastructure Exchange (OIX), joined the Data Center Frontier Show to discuss the OIX Digital Infrastructure Framework, an effort designed to give municipalities a more systematic way to think about data centers and other digital infrastructure before an individual development application lands in front of them. The idea is straightforward: communities routinely create long-range plans defining where homes, commercial development, industry and other land uses should go. Digital infrastructure should be part of that process as well. “Our vision for the framework was to help solve the problem by empowering communities to think about digital infrastructure,” Miller said, so municipalities can incorporate it into their comprehensive master plans and maintain control over how land is ultimately used. That distinction is key. The framework is not intended to convince communities to approve data centers. Nor does it prescribe what a town or county should decide. Instead, Miller said, it is meant to help public officials ask the right questions early enough to make those decisions deliberately. The Data Center May Not Be in the Plan One of the industry’s recurring problems is deceptively basic: many municipalities never anticipated data centers when writing their zoning codes and comprehensive plans. A parcel might already be

Executive Roundtable: AI Infrastructure Under Pressure

California joins US states clamping down on data center gold rush

“Dismissing fears around water consumption, for example, by showing a spreadsheet at a local planning committee meeting, doesn’t resolve concerns for a community that is already suspicious,” he said. Community opposition “is real, and it’s everywhere,” and the new strategic pillar for data center builders and operators is social outreach, Kimball noted. Those proposing data centers must be able to provide credible answers about usage and community impacts, listen to concerns, and commit to transparency. Most enterprises aren’t building gigawatt campuses, he pointed out, but they are paying the price downstream in colocation availability, lead times, pricing, and other factors. Predictability is the big question, supply is already tight, and every delayed project removes capacity factored into forecasts.

Communities are blocking data centers before they’re even proposed

Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs). In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

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2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

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OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

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